Ice tray with cam action handle

ABSTRACT

In the preferred form, a grid for a freezing tray has a horizontally extending handle pivoted upon an upright pivot yoked to single or dual lower longitudinal walls. The handle is provided with a first cam surface engaging one face of an adjacent transverse wall which has an opening laterally of the engaging surfaces. The handle also has a cam arm diverging from the first cam surface extending through said opening for moving said transverse wall in the opposite direction. A torsion spring extending around the pivot pin has its opposite ends engaging the handle and yoke for returning the handle to a position parallel to the longitudinal walls and for moving the cam arm through said opening.

United States Patent 72] Inventor Joe I. Pietrzak Dayton, Ohio [21] Appl. No. 799,204 [221 Filed Feb. 14, 1969 [45] Patented June 15, 1971 [7 3] Assignee General Motors Corporation Detroit, Mich.

[541 ICE TRAY WITI-I CAM ACTION HANDLE 4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

[521 US. Cl 249/72, 249/71, 249/132 [5 l Int. Cl. B28!) 7/10 [50] Field of Search 249/69- [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,683,358 7/1954 I-Iallock 249/71 2,874,552 2/1959 Frei 3,332,657 7/1967 DeVincent Primary Examiner-J. Spencer Overholser Assistant Examiner-Ben D. Tobor Attorneys-William S. Pettigrew, Frederick M. Ritchie and Edward P. Barthel of an adjacent transverse wall which has an opening laterally,

of the engaging surfaces. The handle also has a cam arm diverging from the first cam surface extending through said opening for moving said transverse wall in the opposite direction. A torsion spring extending around the pivot pin has its opposite ends engaging the handle and yoke for returning the handle to a position parallel to the longitudinal walls and for moving the cam am through said opening.

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PATENTED JUN 1 519?:

a a H ICE TRAY WITII CAM ACTION HANDLE This invention pertains to movable grids for freezing trays.

It is desirable that grids for freezing trays be very simple, low in height and very easy to operate to eject the cubes therefrom. It is desirable also to return the grids automatically to their original position.

It is an object of this invention to provide a movable grid IN THE DRAWINGS:

FIG. 1 is a top view of a grid embodying one form of my invention located in a freezing tray;

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view taken along the line FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary transverse vertical sectional view taken substantially along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary transverse vertical section similar to FIG. 3 for a modified form of the grid having twin longitudinal walls.

Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a long rectangular container or freezing pan containing a movable grid 22 made up ofa lower longitudinal wall 24, and an upper longitudinal wall 26 which is slidably mounted upon the top of the lower longitudinal wall. The upper and lower longitudinal walls 26 and 24 are held in alignment by extending through aligned slots in the upwardly extending movable transverse walls 28. The bottoms 30 of the slots in the transverse walls are receivedin notches 32 provided along the bottom edge of the lower longitudinal wall 24 while the tops of the slots are received in the notches 34 in the upper longitudinal wall 26. Preferably the notches 34 are arranged to be of progressively increasing widths so as to provide progressive movement of the transverse walls 28 when the upper longitudinal wall 26 is moved forwardly.

To minimize the height of the assembly, I provide a flat metal horizontally movable handle 36 extending rearwardly from the vertical pivot pin 38 on which it is rotatably mounted. This handle 36 is provided with an upward offset to raise the gripping end portion above the transverse walls 28. The pivot pin 38 is fixed to a yoke supporting means 40 (see FIG. 3) which has its upper portion extending above and across the upper longitudinal wall 26 and has its end portions extending and converging downwardly onto opposite sides of the lower longitudinal wall 24 to which they are tightly clamped by a rivet 42. The handle 36, the upper longitudinal wall 26 and the transverse walls 28, are normally in the position shown in FIG. 2.

According to this invention, to provide an initial high multiplying force to move the upper portions of the transverse walls 28 forwardly, there is a first spiral-shaped cam surface 44 upon the portion of the handle 36 extending in front of the pivot pin 38 to provide a gradually increasing forward movement of the top of the front transverse wall. This spiral cam surface engages the upper portion of the adjacent transverse wall 28 on its rear face. When the handle 36 is turned horizontally in the clockwise direction through about 90 about the pivot pin 38 from the full to the dot-dash position, it will cam forwardly the upper portion of the adjacent transverse wall 28 and the upper longitudinal wall 26. The forward movement of the upper longitudinal wall 26 will progressively engage the remaining transverse walls 28 and move them forwardly to dislodge frozen cubes from the compartments formed by the grid progressively from the front to the rear.

By two very simple additions to the mechanism, provision is made for automatically returning the handle and the grid to the initial position after the frozen cubes are released from the tray and the grid. For this purpose, a torsion-type spiral spring 46 extends around the rivet 38 between the handle 36 and the yoke-shaped supporting means 40. As shown in FIG. 3, the inner end 48 of this spring 46 is turned upwardly through an aperture in the handle 36 while the outer end 50 is turned downwardly into an aperture in the yoke 40. This spring 46 is tensioned to turn the handle 36 in a counterclockwise direction back to its original position in alignment with the longitudinal walls.

The handle 36 is also provided with a cam arm 52 which extends generally forwardly and curls to provide a second inwardlyfacing cam surface 54 which faces the first cam surface 44 but gradually diverges from it. This arm 52 extends through a notch or opening 56 in the top of the front transverse wall 28 on one side of the area engaged by the first cam surface 44. When the handle 36 is returned by the spiral spring 46 to its original positi'on, the second cam surface 54 engages the adjacent side of the notch .or opening 56 to cam the front transverse wall 28 and the longitudinal wall 26 rearwardly to their original positions, thereby returning the remaining transverse walls 28 to their original positions. The second cam surface 54 also serves as a return stop for the handle 36.

In the modification shown in FIG. 4, the yoke support 140, which corresponds to the yoke support 40 in FIGS. 1 to 3, is shown applied to a twin-bar type of grid having twin lower longitudinal walls 124 and twin upper longitudinal walls 126. The downwardly extending arms of the inverted U-shape yoke support 140 are separately tightly clamped by the rivets 142 to the adjacent lower longitudinal wall 128. The yoke support 140 extends between the upper longitudinal walls 126. The rivet or pivot pin 38, the spiral spring 46 and the handle 36 are identical to the corresponding parts shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and operate in the same mannerpThe front transverse wall is provided with a notch similar to the notch 56 for the arm 52 of the handle 36. The transverse walls in the modified form are similar to the transverse walls 28 but are provided with two spaced upwardly extending slots to accommodate the twin upper and lower longitudinal walls 126 and 124. This provides as simple a mechanism for the twin-bar type as for the singlebar type since the yoke arrangement makes it especially easy to apply the cam action handle to the twin-bar type of tray. In fact, the only additional part required for the twin bar arrangement is the second rivet for the second set oflongitudinal bars. The spiral first cam surface on the handle provides a very high initial force multiplication for easy movement of the handle 36 and the front transverse wall. The spiralcam surface also provides for the progressively increasing movement of the transverse walls after the initial release.

While the embodiments of the invention as herein disclosed constitute preferred forms it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

I claim:

l. A grid for dividing the interior of a substantially rectangular pan including upper and lower longitudinal walls and transverse movable walls engaging the upper and lower longitudinal walls wherein the improvement comprises an upwardly extending pivot pin, said lower longitudinal wall being provided with a yoke supporting means for supporting said pivot pin, a handle pivotally mounted upon said pivot pin provided with dual cam means having a first cam surface for engaging and moving the upper portion of one of the transverse walls in one direction and having a second cam surface for engaging and moving one of the transverse walls in the opposite direction.

2. A grid as defined in claim 1 in which a torsion spring extends about said pivot pin and has its opposite ends connected to said handle and said supporting means for returning said handle to its starting position.

walls engaging the upper and lower longitudinal walls wherein the improvement comprises an upwardly extending pivot pin, said lower longitudinal wall being provided with supporting means for said pivot pin, a handle pivotally mounted upon said pivot pin provided with dual cam means, one of the transverse walls being provided with an opening, said dual cam means having a first cam surface normally in contact with said one transverse wall and having anarm extending in a spaced diverging relation to said first cam surface through said opening in said transverse wall, the inner edge of said arm being provided with a second cam surface facing the first cam surface for engaging an edge of said opening.

4. A grid for dividing the interior of a freezing pan including upper portion of one of the transverse walls in one direction and having a second cam surface for engaging and moving the upper portion of one of the transverse walls in the opposite direction.

215 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Dated June 15, 1971 Patent No. 3, 584, 828

Invenrort's) JOE P. Pietrzak It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

r Column 2, line 59, after "lar" (beginning of line) insert freezing Signed and sealed this I th day of January 1 972.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. ROBERT GOTTSCHALK Acting Commissionerof Patents Attesting Officer 

1. A grid for dividing the interior of a substantially rectangular pan including upper and lower longitudinal walls and transverse movable walls engaging the upper and lower longitudinal walls wherein the improvement comprises an upwardly extending pivot pin, said lower longitudinal wall being provided with a yoke supporting means for supporting said pivot pin, a handle pivotally mounted upon said pivot pin provided with dual cam means having a first cam surface for engaging and moving the upper portion of one of the transverse walls in one direction and having a second cam surface for engaging and moving one of the transverse walls in the opposite direction.
 2. A grid as defined in claim 1 in which a torsion spring extends about said pivot pin and has its opposite ends connected to said handle and said supporting means for returning said handle to its starting position.
 3. A grid for dividing the interior of a freezing pan including upper and lower longitudinal walls and transverse movable walls engaging the upper and lower longitudinal walls wherein the improvement comprises an upwardly extending pivot pin, said lower longitudinal wall being provided with supporting means for said pivot pin, a handle pivotally mounted upon said pivot pin provided with dual cam means, one of the transverse walls being provided with an opening, said dual cam means having a first cam surface normally in contact with said one transverse wall and having an arm extending in a spaced diverging relation to said first cam surface through said opening in said transverse wall, the inner edge of said arm being provided with a second cam surface facing the first cam surface for engaging an edge of said opening.
 4. A grid for dividing the interior of a freezing pan including laterally spaced pairs of upper and lower longitudinal walls and transverse movable walls engaging the upper and lower longitudinal walls, wherein the improvement comprises an upwardly extending pivot pin located between the upper longitudinal walls, said lower longitudinal walls being provided with a yoke supporting means for supporting said pivot pin, a handle pivotally mounted upon said pivot pin provided with dual cam means having a first cam surface for engaging and moving the upper portion of one of the transverse walls in one direction and having a second cam surface for engaging and moving the upper portion of one of the transverse walls in the opposite direction. 